


Finding Warmth in the Cold

by KingWinston



Series: Winston/Monty [3]
Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28288269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingWinston/pseuds/KingWinston
Summary: Winston and Monty spend Christmas together in a cabin.This story is written in Monty's POV.
Relationships: Montgomery de la Cruz/Winston Williams
Series: Winston/Monty [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1833115
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38





	Finding Warmth in the Cold

**Author's Note:**

> This is an extra for BTFC but can be read alone

**Finding Warmth in the Cold**

"I told you I could make it work!" I step away from the fireplace, wipe my hands on my jeans and turn to Winston. He's still sitting in the armchair with the electric heater on his right and a thick blanket covering his body. He looks up from his book. 

"Great. So when will it start working?" he asks and pulls the blanket up to his chin. I sigh defeatedly. How was I meant to know that the heating in Scott's cabin didn't work? I didn't know. But Scott let us come here as a gift so I'm not about to complain. He and Estella just got back together so I guess that was his way of trying to win me over.

And yes, I know that Winston is cold but he could at least be glad that I fixed the heating. It works now, we just have to give it time to warm up. "Monty," Winston says getting my attention and then he lifts the blanket as an invitation for me to join him. He moves, let's me sit down and then makes himself comfortable in my lap. He's wearing a thick grey sweater that I know used to belong to his grandad. 

He died in September so Winn had a rocky start to college. I had to help him through it all. Not only was I keeping up with my college work and the football season, but I was also helping him do his college work and then I'd comfort him whenever he needed me. Like I said, I'm here for him. Whatever happens. 

He puts his head on my shoulder and pulls the blanket up to his chin again. "Thank you for fixing the heating," he says with a small smile and then he picks up his book and resumes reading. I let him read for a couple of minutes even though I wanna talk to him. I need to make sure he's staying on top of his college assignments. He's got a part-time job, working weekends at the local gallery so he doesn't always have time to finish his work. He works hard because he knows he didn't try hard enough in high school and he doesn't wanna cheat ever again. Sometimes he just needs someone to keep an eye on him. 

I kiss his shoulder and he doesn't look away from his book but he keeps smiling. It's starting to get warm. I can feel it. Nevertheless, neither one of us moves from under the blanket. 

"Have you finished your college work yet?" I ask. It's better to just get it over with. He's my boyfriend for God's sake, I can talk to him without worrying that he'll get mad at me. It's not like Winston and I argue a lot. But he's tired and he can get snappy with me. Then he gets annoyed with himself because he doesn't mean to be snappy with me and he spends all day apologizing making sure I know he didn't mean it. 

"Almost," he tells me and he puts his book to the side. "I'll get it done, I promise." he leans in and presses his lips to mine while his hand goes up to rest on the side of my neck. I know he means it, I trust him. 

"Gingerbread?" I lick my lips when I pull away and Winston grins. He knows I hate gingerbread but that's all I could taste when I was kissing him. I’ve had enough of gingerbread by the second of December, I don't ever wanna smell or taste gingerbread ever again. 

"You know I love it."

"And you know I hate it."

"And I also know that you love  _ me," _ he adds smugly and then kisses me again. I wanna pull away the second I taste it on him again but he doesn't let me go. He smiles against my lips and then I eventually manage to pull away. 

I could handle it when he tasted like cucumber when he went on that green diet and I could even pretend I didn't mind him smelling like that disgusting cologne he got from his dad but gingerbread is where I draw the line. 

"If you don't wanna date me just say so," Winston says pretending to be upset but he breaks into a smile the minute I raise an eyebrow at him. I didn't go through all of that just to break up with him. No, this is gonna last. It has to. 

"As if you could live without me," I tease him and Winn rolls his eyes. He knows he probably would have dropped out of college after the first term if it wasn’t for me. 

“Yeah, what would I do without your amazing fireplace fixing skills,” he says and he raises his eyebrows at me. He should be glad I fixed it or we’d be sitting here in the cold.

“You’d freeze to death,” I say. I’m tired of talking so I bring his head closer to mine and I kiss him. He still tastes like gingerbread still but I'm trying to get used to it. Like I got used to everything else. 

***

Winston takes one step forward and his foot sinks into the snow. It might be warm in the cabin but he wanted to go outside. Said he didn't come here just to stay inside all day. I laugh at him when he staggers and almost falls ass-first into the snow. He glares at me. 

Except I can't take him seriously. Not with his hat, gloves, scarf and the fifty layers he’s wearing. I laugh again at him and then he scoops some snow into his hand, he shapes it into a ball and he aims it at me. I’m feeling generous so I don’t move and I let the snowball hit my chest. It shatters at impact.

“That all you got?” I love annoying him, he just looks so cute when he’s trying to stay pissed at me. "Come at me, bro." He raises one eyebrow and then scoffs. I take a few steps back just to create some distance between us. He hates it when I treat him like he’s one of my college friends. Hates it when I call him that.

"Yeah? Yeah, I'll come at you ' _ bro _ ',” he says with emphasis on the last word. I grin proudly as he shapes another snowball. This time he takes longer to do it and shape it properly. I wait with my hands in my pockets. Why am I not making my own snowballs? I wanna give him a chance to win this fight.

He throws the snowball and I can tell he’s aiming for my face so I turn my body and it hits my shoulder. Easy. “Missed!” I turn back to him and then a second later I get hit in the face. There’s snow in my eyes, my nose hurts and I stagger backwards. I can hear Winston giggling as I rub my hands up and down my face to get rid of the snow. Fucker.

“Oh, so you wanna do this?” My threats don’t seem to have much effect on him as all he does is laugh. He got one good shot and now he’s getting cocky. I’ll show him how it’s done.

He runs to hide amongst the trees because he knows I’ll get him. Slowly, I walk towards him and I can see his dark green jacket moving behind the trees. He’s not doing a good job at blending in. I pick up the pace, walking closer and closer to him when a snowball comes at me and hits me on on my chest.

“You better start running,” I call out after I brush the snow away from my jacket. He’s gonna get it. The sound of his boots crunching the snow fades away so I know he took my advice. I’m going deeper and deeper into the forest. We’re about a ten-minute walk away from the cabin, he won’t be able to get there without me catching him first.

“I’m so scared already!” he shouts, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He really tests me sometimes. But I think I know what he’s trying to do which puts me at an advantage. So I play along and I let him throw his silly little snowballs at me knowing that that’s the price for winning.

He’s getting closer and closer with every throw. Any moment now he’ll pounce at me and try to pin me down into the snow. That’s not gonna happen. “Aww, give up already?” I ask knowing that he’ll take the bait. “You know you’re gonna lose…” And he’ll try to prove me wrong. He loves proving me wrong. 

I hear him walking up behind me. He thinks he’s being sleek but he’s really not. I know him too well. I bend down to scoop some snow knowing he’ll think that’s the perfect moment to strike. Which he does. 

The second I crouch down, I hear his footsteps and before he can even think about doing anything, I stand up, grab him by the waist and spin him around so his back is pressed to my chest.

“No! Wait- Monty! No, I’m sorry!” A mess of apologises comes out of his mouth as he squirms and struggles to get out of my grip. The snowball in my hand is starting to melt and a drop of cold water falls on his neck. He breaths in sharply. “No, Monty no. Don’t be mean.”

“So I win?” I pull his collar back and his scarf away to give me clear access to his neck. I could just drop the snowball down his shirt and watch him squirm but I know he’ll whine about it for the next two years.

“Fine. Fine,” he sighs. “You win. Now throw that away.” So I drop the melting snowball to the ground, satisfied with winning. My hand was starting to get numb from the cold anyway.

Winston smiles. “So what’s my prize?” I ask. He pulls away from me, rests his back against the nearest tree while looking at me. His nose has gone red making him look even more adorable.

"I'll give you whatever you want," he says with a raise of his eyebrows. 

"I already have everything I want," I reply simply and his expression changes from playful to… 

"What… you. Come here." He shakes his head and then stretches his arms out towards me. Yeah, I know how to get to him. I know how to make him melt on the inside. 

"Yeah?" He wraps his arms around my neck and pulls me closer to him. I love it when he's needy for me. I love  _ him. _

"Who knew you could be sweet," he says, his eyes twinkling as he smiles at me and rubs his thumb across the nape of my neck. 

_ "You _ knew." If anyone else heard me saying this… fuck, the guys wouldn't let me hear the end of it. Leo would give me shit about it for at least a month. I kiss him, feeling his cold nose bump into my cheek. "You're cold."

"And hungry," he adds. "And your prize is… You get to make lunch for me." I groan. "One of us has to learn to cook and it won't be me."

I have no choice but to agree. It's just like this. So we walk home together, hand in hand which I'm not really used to. We haven't really done any hand holding since high school. We stay at home since we're too busy with college and we go out like once every two weeks. Then I have a chance to hold his hand in public. My hands are cold and he has gloves… 

My thumb grazes over his knuckles as he tells me about how he spends every Christmas with his family. "And remember that time you came over and l-"

"And Benji held that mistletoe over our heads?" I finish for him and he smiles. 

"Yeah. That."

Yeah. That thing that was the first step to us getting back together. "And you made up that 'Christmas party' excuse just so I could meet your family," I remind him and he chuckles. 

"Yeah and it worked... " he says. It did. Back then- I was a mess unsure of what I wanted and he was the one who got me to see that  _ he _ was what I wanted. And still is. 

The minute we get inside, he says he's gonna take a bath. Which gives me some time to prepare lunch for us. And I don't really know what to make until… 

_ Rocking around the- _

"Christmas tree, let the Christmas spirit ring," Winston sings along. I'm stirring the sauce in the pot when he wraps his arms around me from behind. Then he stops singing and he scoffs. “Are you kidding me?” He looks over my shoulder and laughs when he sees that, yep, that’s what I’m choosing to make for lunch.

“Got the idea from you,” I say and he shakes his head.

“Yeah, I can see that.” And then he gets a spoon and tastes the sauce. He licks his lips and then gives me a nod of approval. “It’s good. I’m taking credit for it though.” He grins at me before putting the spoon in the sink. 

“Excuse me?” Yeah, they’re the same meatball he made last Christmas when he was trying to seduce me back into dating him but  _ I  _ made them. I’m not letting him take credit for my meatballs.

“You heard me,” Winn says. Yeah whatever, as if that’s happening. He leaves me alone to make hot chocolate for me and him so we work around each other in the kitchen. I focus on the food while he makes our drinks. The Christmas songs play in the background and it reminds me of something.

“Why aren’t you spending Christmas with your family like you do every year?” I look up and Winston shrugs.

“I am,” he says, his brow furrowing. “You’re family.” I know that, I do but every time he says it it’s like I’m seventeen again and he’s telling me that he loves me for the first time. Okay maybe the second time because the first time I found out from Zach and- Yeah that was a mess.

“Yeah but we could be with your parents right now,” I say. Winston hasn’t really spoken about his family since his grandad died. It’s like he’s trying to distance himself away from them or something… but I know that he calls his mom every week.

“Yeah… but I wanted to spend it with you,” he says slowly and carefully like he doesn’t even understand why I’m asking in the first place. I don’t know, maybe I’m making a big deal out of nothing. I turn the stove off because the food looks ready and I don’t wanna burn anything. Then Winston clears his throat.

“And what about you? Why are you spending Christmas with me and not with… your mom and Estella?” He leans against the counter. 

“‘Cause… I never really had Christmas with my parents. I just remember them arguing about money and my dad getting drunk and… My mom is spending it with Spencer. Estela with Scott and his family and my dad’s in prison so.” I shrug. It doesn’t mean anything. Nothing. I’m over it.

Winston hugs me from behind again while I pour the sauce into one of the bowls. I don’t wanna talk about my dad and he knows that. Fucking brought him up for no reason at all.

“Do you wanna eat here or in the living room?” 

“Living room,” I say so Winston tells me he’ll bring our drinks. I wait a few minutes before joining him, taking my time with the food and making sure it's perfect only because I need a minute to get my stupid dad out of my stupid head.

When I come back, Winston is sitting in front of the fireplace in the armchair. And he's eating those cursed cookies. "Gingerbread?" I ask after putting our plates down on the table. Winston just grins. "Dickhead."

So then he gives me a light shove when I try to sit down with him though he gives in a second later. "You know this chair isn't big enough for both of us, right?" he says when I pass him his plate. His stomach rumbles. It was big enough before when he sat in my lap but now he's holding a plate and I don't wanna be explaining to Scott why there are stains on his furniture. Maybe from food, maybe from something else. 

I sit on the armrest of the chair with the plate in my lap. Before I eat, I wait for Winston to take a bite. He uses both his knife and fork, cutting up the meatball and then putting a piece in his mouth. He gives me a small nod. "It's good," he says and then he licks his lips. "Obviously mine were better though."

"Yeah yeah whatever." I roll my eyes knowing that he's just being cocky because he's in a good mood. "And then you can't even make toast at home without setting off the fire alarm."

"One time!" Winston says like that's supposed to make it better. I smile. Sometimes he's such a mess in the morning especially if he was up the night before finishing a college assignment. 

I reach for my hot chocolate. I don't think twice before taking a sip and when I do, it tastes a bit weird. Alcohol. "Did you spike my drink?" I ask and Winston turns red. 

“I-I what? All I did was add wine to it!” he protests and then he shakes his head. “Spike him…” he mutters under his breath. I laugh at him, ruffle his hair and he pretends to be annoyed with me. He's never annoyed with me. 

***

We left the tree decorating until morning. Winston fell asleep in front of the fireplace and I didn’t wanna start without him so I left it. I’ve been doing shit all morning while he slept. I know that Scott said there’s a tree somewhere up in the attic but I didn't wanna be putting baubles on a fake tree while we were surrounded by a forest of real ones. 

I tried to get us a big one but it was way too heavy and way too difficult to cut down. Had to settle for a smaller one and then drag it all the way back to the house with a sledge. I've never done so much physical work in my entire life. 

My hands are frozen solid, I can't feel my face and my back hurts like hell from dragging this tree along. I almost thought it wouldn't fit through the door but it does. Just about.

"Hey, I was just making- What the hell is that thing?" Winston stops in the kitchen doorway as I drag the tree to the place we had designated for the tree. In the corner of the room to the left of the fireplace. Winn is wearing a red sweater with a Rudolf face on it. It's the most hideous thing I've ever seen. 

"Why are you wearing that?" I ask and he moves out of the way. 

"Jesus, Monty. You left pine needles everywhere," he says picking up a few from the floor. I've never had a real Christmas tree so I didn't know this was gonna happen. At least we don't have a carpet for them to get stuck in. 

"As for my sweater," he adds and then he disappears into the kitchen. I glance down at the tree, it needs to stand up somehow and I'm not sure how yet. Winston returns with a sweeping brush and he shakes his head at me. "It's a gift from my mother so I'd you don't like it you're gonna have to take it up with her."

"I love it."

"I thought so." He sweeps the floor as I try to figure out a way to put the tree up. "Maybe I could check upstairs if there's a stand or something?" he suggests. I never thought that putting up a tree might be so much work. I have to google it. 

About half an hour later, we're trying to fit the tree trunk into the metal stand Winston brought downstairs. And it's not an easy job either. 

"Stop pushing, you can't just fucking force it in," Winston snaps at me. Sometimes he's the impatient one and sometimes I am. I just wanna get this over it so we can get to the fun part. "Monty!"

"I'm sorry, okay? It just won't fucking go in," I complain. And the tree's heavy, in trying to hold it up while Winston is down on the floor holding the metal stand. 

"Okay wait, I'll loosen it a little. I'll get a screwdriver. Or something... " I'd make a joke about him even knowing how to use a screwdriver but I don't because it's cute how he's trying his best. But when he comes back with a screwdriver, he passes it to me. "Here, I know you'll do it better." Meaning: I have no idea what to do with this.

So we switch places and he holds the tree while I loosen the stand. It goes in. Eventually. 

"See? I knew you could do it," Winston says after we're done and my arms feel like they've been prickled by a billion needles from this fucking tree digging into my arms for the past hour. "Thank you for this," he then adds with a small smile. Reminding me why I put myself through it in the first place. 

"Yeah it's whatever."

"Never had a real Christmas tree,” he says and then he takes off his sweater. “It’s way too hot, it was starting to stick to me.”

“Or you could just admit that you hate it,” I say and he chuckles. I know him too well. “Now should we get started on the tree?” He already brought down all the decorations Scott’s parents had stashed away in the attic. I’ve never done this with my parents because we had a small plastic tree that Mom decorated herself and put on the living room table. She wouldn’t let anyone touch it because the baubles were made of glass and… my dad would have killed me if I shattered one of those.

“What colour theme do you wanna go for? Red and green? Blue and white? Red and gold…” he trails off as he opens one of the boxes.

“Definitely gay,” I mutter and then a second later I get a pillow thrown at me. 

“If you wanna have an ugly, uncoordinated Christmas tree then fine,” Winston says and he crosses his arms over his chest. Aw, he’ll do anything to get his way. His colour themes.

“Never said that. Just said you were gay,” I say and he can’t stay serious. He cracks a smile and shakes his head.

“Yeah and I never had a problem admitting it unlike _ someone,” _ he says and then he picks up one of the cardboard boxes and holds it out to me. “Now get to work, I only want things that are gold and red.”

I’m just glad we can joke about it now. "Can't believe you made this decision without me," I say as I look through the box. I take out two red glittery baubles. 

"Huh?"

I smile to myself. "Maybe I wanted our Christmas tree to be red and green, have you thought about that?" I ask and Winston sighs while looking straight at me. Sometimes arguing with him over meaningless shit is the highlight of my day. And it means that when we argue about the shit that matters, we can just talk it out because we let all our frustration out in those fake little arguments. 

"Wow imagine if there was a way to overcome this massive problem of yours," Winston says sarcastically and then he opens his box. "Fine, take out red, gold  _ and  _ green decorations. And that's it. You're welcome." I like it when he's bossy sometimes and I know he likes it too. We can switch from time to time. 

He puts on a Christmas playlist that he sings along to. I recognise most of them from when Estela would play them in her room to drown out our parents' arguments. But Winston makes me forget about all of that, singing all those stupid songs and putting the gold tinsel around the tree. 

“No wait, the red one’s too close to the other red one,” Winston says when I try to hang a bauble on the tree. He just wants everything to be perfect for our first Christmas _ together _ together. And he takes this very seriously. 

“Can I turn the lights on yet?” I ask. Winston is still putting the baubles on but he can’t reach to the top of the tree. He’s standing on his tiptoes, I smile to myself. “Hey, let me help you.” We’re pretty much the same height but I pick him up, my hands stay on his hips as he hangs the baubles up near the top.

He looks down at me and grins. “Knew there was a reason why I kept you around.” 

“I’ll drop you in a second,” I say but then I just put him back down on his feet. It takes us about twenty minutes to finish decorating the tree and I do the last ten minutes by myself because Winston brings out the camera. He takes a few photos and then switches to his phone.

“I need to send this to ‘Stella,” he says with a grin when I get on the ladder to put the star on top of the tree. I’m pretty sure his camera roll is just filled with photos of me. “Wait, I need one of us together.” He puts his ugly sweater on again and I sigh because I know there’s no getting out of this. 

He comes over to the tree, looks me up and down and grimaces. “What?” I ask and his stupid ass walks away from me without answering. He’s like that sometimes, mostly at home. Then he comes back with a Santa hat and I groan. “Not wearing it.”

“Please?” he says but I stake a step back and almost walk into our tree. “Come on, my mom wants a picture.” He grins knowing that I’ll never be able to say no when it comes to his mom. I know that Winn’s parents love me and I wanna make sure it stays that way.

“One picture, that’s all.” I stand there and let Winston pull the hat over my eyes. He kisses my nose and tells me to stop frowning. “I’ll stop frowning when I can take this stupid hat off.”

Winston chuckles. “Just because you  _ say _ you hate it doesn’t mean I believe you,” he says with a small smile. “You can’t pretend with me.” I roll my eyes and look down at my shoes. I’m really trying to hate Christmas because of all the bad shit I associate with it but he’s making it hard for me. He wants to make everything good for me, wants to make good memories from Christmas. 

“Whatever, just take the picture,” I say, trying hard not to smile. He holds his phone up, runs his hand through his hair and then glances at me. “Yeah?”

“Nothing,” he says with a grin. “Nothing…” And then he smiles at the camera, I make an attempt at smiling and he takes the picture. 

***

Okay so maybe Christmas isn’t so bad. I keep glancing at the clock wondering when it’s appropriate to wake him up. It’s six in the morning but I’ve been waiting to give him his gift for the past two months and I can’t wait a second longer. But then I look at him and how he’s hugging the pillow… Okay, maybe I’ll give him five more minutes. 

The film we were watching is still paused on the flat-screen TV. Fifteen minutes in. I’d say that’s a record. I turn the TV off and get out of bed to look for my clothes. The Santa’s hat is on the floor, I almost step on it. I throw it back onto the bed and then walk over to the closet to look for something clean.

While I’m putting a shirt on, I accidentally knock down the lamp from the bedside table. And even though I catch it before it hits the floor, Winston stirs. He turns on his side to face me and then he squints. “Why are you awake?” He sounds so sleepy that I almost feel bad for waking him up. Almost. 

“Because… it’s Christmas?” I say uncertainly. He’ll forgive anything if I use Christmas as an excuse. As long as I’m having fun. “And I have something for you.” I look away. 

“Then it better be under the Christmas tree when I get downstairs,” he replies and I raise an eyebrow. He can’t honestly expect me to do this Santa bullshit. But whatever. I’ll do it. Yeah.

I’m not even fully awake yet but I wash my face in the bathroom and then I take the gift bag from under the bed in the spare bedroom. I kinda hoped that would be a safe hiding space.

When I go downstairs, there are already two things under the tree. What lookx like a large box wrapped in red wrapping paper and a red envelope on top of it. I would have used wrapping paper except I had no idea how to use it and then it looked like shit with tape sticking out all over the place so I left it and put it into a bag instead. 

I don’t even know how he managed to put it there when he fell asleep before me last night. And I was with him the whole time before because we were drinking and watching those cringe Christmas movies.  _ Elf _ I think it was called. I guess he just has his ways.

“Hey… Merry Christmas?” Someone wraps their arms around me from behind and kisses the side of my neck. I squirm in his arms and he laughs at me. Then I turn around, see him and it’s my turn to laugh.

“What are you- What are you wearing?” I ask him and I put my hands on his hips to make sure he doesn’t walk away from me. I look down at his hoodie and the hood with the reindeer antlers. He’s so extra sometimes. His brow furrows and I realise I better say something before he gets the wrong idea. “It’s cute.  _ You  _ look really cute.”

“Thank you,” Winn says and then he grabs the collar of my flannel and pulls me in to kiss him. We may both taste like toothpaste but it’s better than gingerbread. When Winn pulls away he shakes his head at me. “You couldn’t wear anything at least a little bit Christmasy?”

“My flannel’s red,” I point out at which Winston sighs. I laugh quietly. “I don’t have anything like that.” Not like I’d ever buy a Christmas sweater or a Rudolf hoodie. 

Winston let’s go of me, puts his hands on my arms and then looks me right in the eye. “Right after breakfast you’re gonna drive to the nearest town and we’re gonna get you a Christmas sweater.”

“Don’t think the shops are open today baby,” I say and I simply do not want to be driving for almost two hours just to get an ugly sweater. Would I still do it if he wanted to? Yes.

“Oh… Right,” he says. “I don’t care, then we’ll do it tomorrow and you’ll be wearing it all day. To make up for today.”

“Sounds good,” I say, hoping he’ll forget about it all tomorrow. “Now can you just see what I got you?”

Winston insists that we sit on the floor because that’s how they do it at his house. He goes first, takes the gift bag from under the tree and then smiles nervously. This isn’t our first time getting gifts for each other but it’s our first time getting Christmas gifts for each other now that I think about it.

He takes out the mirror first and laughs. His old one shattered two weeks ago when he accidentally dropped it and then he had to use the mirror in the bathroom to do his hair meaning that I had no access to the bathroom for about an hour. Though he let me in to shower if I asked really nicely.

“Oh wow, you know how much I love looking at myself,” Winn says with a small laugh and then he reaches into the bag again. The next gift… I may or may not have had help. Had to text his friend Nick to find out what he’d like. He’s a photographer too so I guess it was my best shot to trust him as I’m shit at picking out gifts.

It’s this little printer thing that connects to your phone. He can print his pictures from his phone and can stop complaining that all our best pictures are on his phone and he has to send them somewhere for them to get developed. We have a whole wall in the living room dedicated just to pictures and it’s already half covered. This should be good.

“Oh, Monty… I love it,” he says and then he gives me a one-armed hug because his other hand is holding the bag. He quickly pulls away. “Okay, we have to take a picture for our wall.” Once he figures out how it works, he crawls over to me, puts his head on my shoulder and takes the picture. I didn’t even have to remind myself to smile.

“Look how good we look!” he says, showing me the picture. I’m not really one to say I look good but… we do. We really do.

And then it’s my turn to open my presents and I’m a bit nervous. When I unwrap it, it’s just a cardboard box. Then inside it is a shirt. A football jersey. It’s Tom Brady’s. I look at Winston. “How do… You don’t know the first thing about football.” And I stare at the shirt unable to figure out if it’s real or not. Fuck I’ve wanted it for so long but it was so fucking expensive that I didn’t want to spend all that money on a dumb jersey.

“That’s true, but I know my boyfriend,” Winn replies with a shrug and I break out in a grin again without even meaning to. “There’s something else there too.” He pushes his messy curls away from his face and nods towards the box.

A football with the Patriots logo on it. I turn it around and there, it’s signed. This idiot- he must have spent a fortune just on my gifts. 

“Winston-” I begin but I’m not gonna complain, he can use his money however he wants. He won’t listen to me anyway.“Thanks.” I place a small kiss on his cheek but turns out that’s not everything. The envelope.

He holds it out to me and smiles. “It’s, erm, from my parents. For both of us,” he says and then he rubs his nose.

It’s bulky so I rip it open, not really caring. And then a car key falls out. No. He can’t. That’s way too expensive. But as soon as I open my mouth, Winston interrupts me. “It’s from my parents,” he repeats again. “And it’s a really nice car, either of us can drive it.”

Yeah but he has a perfectly good car and mine’s falling apart. I have to have it repaired like every month. He knows it’s way too expensive and I would never accept it but he’ll make me take it. “I love you,” I say simply because a thank you just doesn’t seem like it’s enough. And I love how he really knows me.

“I know,” he says with a small smile. “And I love you too… You wanna have breakfast now? I wanna get some pictures of us having breakfast.” I laugh. Maybe that one wall won’t be enough for our pictures, we’ll have to cover every single wall. 

**Author's Note:**

> conclusion: i cannot write fluff  
> thank you for reading and happy Christmas :)


End file.
